Julep - Box of Mystery

I love Christmas.  Now, lots of people may suspect the opposite.  This is probably largely based upon my hatred of Christmas carols (which I blame on being in a children's choir for a few years - sing those fuckers about five hundred times and tell me if you like good Saint Nick).  Or possibly my hatred of Christmas decorations (I GET IT, LIGHTS BLINK, THAT'S FANTASTIC, GOOD ON YOU).  But I love presents.  I love giving them more than anything else in the whole world.  To me, giving gifts is as close to the hunter/gatherer instinct as we can get in this day and age.  Plus, it means I can buy one or two things for myself and not look like a prat.  Which brings me to today's post!

Julep is a nail polish parlor up in the Pacific Northwest that also makes their own products.  They have a 'polish of the month' club that they call the "Maven" program (which is not the point of this post, but I'll explain in case you don't know).  Every month for 19.99 USD, they send you a box at the beginning of said month that includes at least forty USD worth of product.  They have little fashion "profiles", one of which you're put into when you sign up.  But if you hate your box for your profile that month, you can switch.  You can also skip the month, or just have the whole shebang sent to a friend as an impomptu gift.  I love Julep.  I love my Maven boxes.  It's like a gift every month, and it has cute packaging, and Julep polishes have one of my favorite nail polish formulas out there.

So when they announced they were doing a "Box of Mystery", I jumped all over that.  They described it as a box containing at least 60.00 USD worth of product but might have up to 200.00 worth.  For 19.99?  Yeah, I got myself one while I was shopping for other people's gifts.  It came today, so I took pictures at work.  (I'll put more up when I finally get a chance to use the polish!)

I squealed when I saw it had come in, not going to lie.  Happy flaily arms abounded.

This is what I got.  I got three polishes, a lipgloss (which they call a "pout popper", but I refuse to ever say that again unless someone A) has a gun to my head, or B) I've recently had a lobotomy), a nail file, and some pretty generous (30 ml) sample sizes of their glycolic scrub and age defying hand cream.

The age defying hand cream isn't really that special to me.  I've gotten samples of it in my Maven boxes before, and it's ... hand lotion?  It didn't really do anything that made me think "hot damn, I should spend 32.00 USD a bottle on it".  Now, the "Facial for Hands" glycolic hand scrub is totally a different matter.  I have debated spending that much on it, if only because that combined with my argan oil has been giving me baby soft hands.  The scrub smells like a fruit smoothie and feels like most facial scrubs.  I use it in the shower and slather my elbows up with it too, and that actually does make a difference.  It also just feels good - I'm an exfoliation junkie.

Onto the polishes!

This is "Jodie" (Julep names all of their polishes after girls).  It's a dusky rose color with a lot of bronze shimmer to it.

This is "Carrie", a lighter than bubblegum pink.  I normally wouldn't go for a color like this, but it's just bright enough that I'm excited to give it a go.

This is "Christina".  At first I was bummed out because it looked like a boring red in low light (and I actually hate red nail polish), but then I saw it had a buttload of gold shimmer in it, and now I'm stoked.

And lastly, I got a lipgloss.  I admit, I was pretty dubious about trying lipgloss from a manicure place, but I'm wearing it right now, and it's not awful!  It's not super sticky, almost feeling more like a lip cream than a gloss.  It's shiny without being glittery, so you won't look like you just took a moneyshot from an elf.  I dislike the smell (it's like they were trying to duplicate Chanel's lipstick scent, but way more floral), but it goes away once it's on your mouth.

This was a full size in the color "Arousal".  It's a pretty color, very close to my own lip color but better.  I can't find this exact color for sale on their site, but they do have some other colors available for 18.00 USD each.  They claim that this is a plumping gloss, and maybe they're right; my lips do look a little bit fuller.  But I'm also filled with Cepacol cough drops, and they do the same damn thing.

I also got a nail file, but nobody cares about that.  It's a nail file.  It files nails.

All in all, I'm super stoked to use all my loot over the next few days.  For 19.99, this was a great deal (the polishes retail for 14.00 USD alone).  And if you're interested in the Maven box, click here to sign up.  (Under the promo code, be sure to put down INTRO5 - you'll get your first box for five dollars, which ends up being about eight or nine bucks with tax).